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Volunteers work to cleanup beaches

Volunteers gathered at the Irondequoit Bay Marine Park on Friday as part of a public Adopt-a-Beach event.

The event was hosted by the Alliance for the Great Lakes in association with Barefoot Wine. The partnership is a part of an effort to keep Great Lakes beaches "barefoot friendly."

Last year, volunteers removed more than 42,000 pounds of trash from Great Lake beaches in six states.

"It's an amazing resource and it's an amazing opportunity for the citizens to be real good stewards of it," says Nate Drag of the Alliance of the Great Lakes. "So we want to develop a relationship with our local beaches and our local waterways, make an effort to take care of them and just a greater appreciation of what we have and become better neighbors of it."

After the cleanup, volunteers were invited to enjoy some of that Barefoot Wine during a celebration as recognition of their efforts. This is the third year the cleanup event has been held.